Farrar/Yames/Parker/Johnson: New Multitudes (Universal)

Some context? Woody Guthrie – whose
words prompted this album by an alt.country semi-supergroup – died
in 1967, around the time Taylor Swift's parents were born.

A model
for the young Bob Dylan (now 70) and the folk movement of the early
60s, Guthrie also inspired Joe Strummer (who called himself “Woody” in his pre-Clash) and Springsteen.

About 15 years ago Billy Bragg and
Wilco – at the invitation of Guthrie' daughter Nora who oversees
the archives – used previously unpublished Guthrie lyrics for the
two Mermaid Avenue albums, and others have done similar.

Now
Jay Farrar (Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt), Yim Yames (aka Jim James of My
Morning Jacket) and the lesser-known Anders Parker and Will Johnson
have taken some Guthrie journal entries/poems for this stand-alone
genre-defying album bristling with Dylanesque rock (the fierce VD
City) and musical nods to REM (Angel Blues) and the
Byrds/Eagles (the breeze-blown Old LA), while also pinning in
smart alt.folk ballads (the falling apart Revolutionary Mind),
the droning folkadelic title track and an eerily beautiful Chorine.

Although known as social activist,
Guthrie's more personal words here ring with optimism (the aching
fiddle-coloured Hoping Machine), loneliness (Empty Bed
Blues) and courage in the face of death (the gritty singalong No
Fear).

Although the line-up of alt.folk/alt.country luminaries might suggest that rather nice and polite Monsters of Folk coalition, this is much more meaty.

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